Archive for January, 2006
In the wake of President Bush’s State of the Union speech, i feel it is appropriate to quote President Eisenhower’s farewell address in 1961 about the threats from the military-industrial complex.
Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence - economic, political, even spiritual - is felt in every city, every state house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
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According to CNET news, IBM has elected James W. Owens, the Chairman and CEO of Caterpillar, to its board of directors. Caterpillar, known among most as manufacturer of construction and mining equipments, sells the Cat D9 bulldozers through the U.S. Foreign Military Sales Program to the state of Israel. The bulldozers are then converted by Israel into armored machines used in demolishing Palestinian homes, structures and agricultural areas.
One of the four mission statements of Caterpillar declared that “Caterpillar is dedicated to improving the quality of life while sustaining the quality of our earth. We encourage social responsibility.”
On Caterpillar’s “Corporate Overview” page about its social responsibility:
Caterpillar’s reputation for making a difference in the world is something we are proud of as a company. In response to the Asian Tsunami disaster, Caterpillar and its dealers provided machines, money and resources for relief and recovery efforts. Caterpillar is also proud to be the lead corporate donor in The Nature Conservancy’s Great Rivers Partnership project. And Cat has once again been named to the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index.
And yet, why is Caterpillar continuing to sell and service bulldozers to Israel, knowing that these giant demolition machines are then used to destroy Palestinian homes and farms as a form of collective punishment and land expropriation ? What kind of social responsibility is Caterpillar encouraging? Is Caterpillar proud of being the corporation known as the provider of machines used in the killing of Rachel Corrie, who put her body in the path of an Israel D9 bulldozer in trying to prevent the destruction of a Palestinian home?
Caterpillar’s response to this criticism is that “activists have wrongly included Caterpillar in a publicity campaign aimed at advancing their much larger political agendas,” and that “as a well-respected and responsible global citizen, Caterpillar fully complies with all local, U.S. and international laws and policies governing sales of their products.” Furthermore, Caterpillar has “neither the legal right nor the tangible ability to regulate how customers use their machines.”
So essentially, Caterpillar is saying that they are here to make a bunch of money and they do not give a damn on how their machines are being utilized as long as the money keeps coming in. Is this the role of a “global strategic player” that “is driving positive and sustainable change on every continent”, as claimed by Caterpillar?
Also, what does it say about IBM in electing the CEO of Demolition Inc to its board?
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After testing WordPress 2.0 on my test server, and also on a guinea pig user, i finally upgraded my site to the latest version of WordPress. There are a few things that i like about WP 2.0, one of them is image upload. It is so much easier to put an image in the blog now. I normally blog using Safari on my Powerbook but if i use Firefox instead, inserting an image in a blog is a simple matter of drag-and-drop. Upgrading to WP 2.0 is really not a big deal and all my WP 1.5 plugins are working fine.
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The first time i saw salami, that must have been years ago, i was disgusted by the sight of the casing full of uncooked pork. I am not sure what happened two years ago when i started eating these thinly sliced pieces of heaven. The more i eat, the more i like it. I especially like to pair it with red wine. I am normally not a red wine drinker but salami matches really well with red wine.
The last few evenings, i have been treating myself with more than 10 different kinds of salami and a bottle of the 2001 Villa Antinori Toscana. Here the list of amazing salamis that i have been eating: spicy wild boar salami, German summer sausage, Holstein salami, pepper salami, Milano salami, Genoa salami, lamb salami, spicy buffalo salami, Verona salami and Prosciutto salami. My favorites are the Milano, Genoa and Verona salamis.
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I started boycotting MPAA (Motion Pictures Association of America) back in late 90s when the movie industry began going after everyone with the DeCSS code on their sites or even sites with just links to the code. My boycott of MPAA involved not going to the movie theaters (well, at least not paying out of my own pocket) and not buying or renting any legitimate copies of movies. My financial boycott of MPAA lasted more than three years and it ended when a judge threw out the case by MPAA. When i learned about Nike’s sweatshops in Vietnam, i started boycotting Nike products. I have not bought any Nike products since i started my boycott. A few years ago, when i learned about the horrific labor practices of Exxon Mobil in Indonesia, i stopped getting gas from its gas stations. I refuse to buy any products made in Israel because of its occupation of the Palestinian territories and its grave human rights abuses in the occupied territories.
After watching the documentary “The Corporation“, i started asking myself, since i am already not buying any products of the companies/countries that i am boycotting, why don’t i take it up another notch and stop investing in them as well? Why should i invest my money in companies/corporations known to operate sweatshops in third world countries, manufacture products without any care to the damages inflicted to the environment, selling weapon systems knowing that they will be used not in defense but in killing and destroying civilizations? The Israelis are already getting more than $3 billion dollars a year out of my hard-earned tax dollars, why should i cough up more money for Israeli firms so that Israel can continue its land theft and the gradual ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians?
You are probably thinking, what difference does withholding my meager contribution make? Well, probably negligible. That is, if everyone thinks that way. If everyone thinks that way, things will remain the same. Corporations will not be held accountable for their immoral and unethical actions in the process of making billions of dollars for its executives, and countries will not be punished or sanctioned while they continue to flout every known human rights law.
So starting today, i will make sure that the portfolios i have in my 401K retirement plan and Roth IRA follow the guideline listed below:
- No “defense” industry-related companies. I don’t see how it is morally comprehensible for companies to make money off killing and maiming by selling weapons of mass destructions. Even if only a portion of a company is involved in this industry, they will not get a penny from me. So Boeing is out.
- No companies with known records of destroying the environment.
- No tobacco companies.
- No Israeli firms. As long as Israel continues to occupy the land it forcibly took in 1967, they can kiss my investment goodbye. Right now, i will not invest in companies based in Israel or with strong ties to Israel. Eventually, my goal is to include companies with investments in Israel, like Microsoft, HP, Intel, Starbucks, McDonalds and so on. There are currently several campaigns to divest from Israel.
- No Caterpillar. Even when confronted with facts that the Israelis are using their bulldozers to tear down Palestinian homes (either as a form of collective punishment or continuation of the process to steal land for settlements), Caterpillar continues to sell bulldozers and equipments to the state of Israel.
- No companies with bad labor practices.
I am sure this list will be expanded.
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How long did it take Yahoo! to implement SSL for the default login? Apparently, less than two months after i posted this security problem.
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For some reason, the latest firmware for D-Link DI-624 WiFi router is not playing well with Airport Extreme on my 17″ G4 Powerbook. After connecting to the WiFi network, the Airport Extreme would lose its route to the router. Strangely enough, i can still connect to other servers on my own network using the same WiFi network. The latest firmware from D-Link is version 2.70. After going back to version 2.50 of the firmware, this problem disappeared.
Airport Extreme is not able to connect at all if i change the encryption on my WiFi network to WPA2 on the router. WPA2 support is added to the DI-624 after version 2.50 of the firmware.
One weird thing i have noticed, even with the older version of the firmware, is that if i have to select my own WiFi network in the Powerbook, it is unable to connect to the network. But if i turn Airport off and then on, it is then able to join the WiFi network. Strange.
Update 1/30/2006
Apparently there is a problem with using WPA as well with version 2.70 of the D-Link DI-624 firmware. The same issue with the inability to connect to the router every so often appeared when i was using my Powerbook at a friend’s place with the same router.
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Just picked up my Harman Kardon iPod docking station on last Friday. Harman Kardon calls this docking station “The Bridge“. Basically, “The Bridge” allows any “40″ series Harman Kardon A/V receiver to control the iPod from either the A/V receiver or the remote that comes with the A/V receiver. I have the Harman Kardon AVR-240 A/V receiver. One end of “The Bridge” connects to the “DMP” input at the back panel of the receiver, the other end is the docking station itself. Harman Kardon provided 5 different types of docking kits for the various types of iPod out there. I have an iPod mini so i chose the docking kit with word “mini” under it.
Once my iPod mini is mounted on the docking station, i can do the following on the remote: select playlist/artist/album/genre, during playback, pause the song/fast forward or reverse/skip forward or backward. Information about the playlist/artist/album/genre are displayed on the A/V receiver. During playback of a song, the song title, singer and album are displayed, normally via scrolling text. Oh yeah, the iPod is being charged while mounted on the docking station. I assume the data is transfered from the iPod to the receiver digitally. The front panel on the A/V receiver displays ASCII letters correctly. You are out of luck if you have any non-ASCII characters included with your songs.
What i like about “The Bridge” is the minimalist approach taken by Harman Kardon in its design and use. The docking station is integrated extremely well with my A/V receiver and most importantly, the sound is awesome.
It took me a while before i finally configured my Logitech Harmony 520 universal remote to perform the same functions as the A/V receiver remote.
Update 2/1/2006
Occasionally while playing in a playlist, the receiver would abruptly stop playing and go back to the main menu. Not sure what is causing this odd behavior. I can’t seem to google anything on it.
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